What Happened To The 97 Infants Buried Below Yewden Roman Villa? | Digging For Britain

[@davidgane5786]

52 minutes never wasted with Dr Alice .

[@filosofotacio8950]

You like her so much, why don't you just marry her then?!

[@dtulip1]

@@filosofotacio8950 what the actual heck??!! sheeesh

[@SilverSparkles22]

​@@filosofotacio8950As immature WTF comments go...

[@theresaballou9401]

Not sure how old the Dr is, but she exudes a youthful energy & excitement that makes me want to watch until the end. I can tell she truly loves what she does! I’m hooked! ❤

[@marycollins1024]

She’s 51 I believe.

[@estherrenwick7006]

I think this programme is a few years old now, a lot of the work at Yewden was done around 2010.

[@EmbraceTheJourney]

love these videos. Dr Roberts is an amazing presence. Fantastic presentation.

[@meowwl]

I'd want to know the infant mortality rate for a typical roman villa at that time, before jumping to infanticide as a conclusion...My own great grandfather was the only one of six to survive to adutlhood...three of which were lost before their first year.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Yes less than 100 years ago babies died often. Most families lost one or more. Wasn't unusual unfortunately.

[@Padraigp]

Absolutely. Id like to know how old the " infants" were which would be pretty important fact. They make up all these stories but dont tell us the basic facts we would need to know! How old? Buried all at once or in different layers? Very little facts about them just conjecture.

[@Thewholetree]

Exactly. 97 babies to die in 50 years that's less than two per year. That's like modern infant mortality

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Not only that giving birth was dangerous in Roman times. Life generally was precarious for both mothers and babies.

[@ellieplantagenet9121]

@@meowwl in antiquity, the Roman's and Greeks commonly used infanticide to dispose of unwanted infants. Hard to sort that out from natural causes.

[@a.h.g.9kokushibo]

Infant mortality was probably pretty high back then. Considering it's pretty high in some countries now.

[@shannonfbc1]

Maternal death would have too though so we're are the mom's?

[@ledacedar6253]

You don’t realize that prior to 1990’s Britain’s midwives delivered all but 3-8% of infants without the need for any medical doctors surgical interventions. Now they do cesareans frequently to schedule 25-45% of women for Cesareans so they can book their golf escapes! Facts!

[@derekstocker6661]

What an amazing and revealing programme! Fabulous finds and wonderfully filmed and narrated. I thought that the object at 30:50 looked very similar to a pommel of a gladius Roman sword. Thanks for this, amazing work, lovely scenery and great background music as well!

[@marvellousmarvin]

Thanks Alice for another informative bit of history of your island. 🥰😀

[@joannicholson3030]

Love alice, she makes archaeology so interesting.❤

[@laneoswego6989]

Brilliant and wonderful Dr Robert’s presentation is incredibly informative and entertaining

[@MrTorleon]

Another fascinating and informative episode, hosted by the ever mesmeric Prof. Alice Roberts. Although initially produced a little while ago now, the archeological evidence and conclusions drawn at the various sites are completely relevant today. The excitement is in what will continue to be discovered as the excavations are expanded !!!! Thank you for uploading this very satisfying series :)

[@sarkybugger5009]

I was thinking that this program itself almost qualifies as ancient history. I live in Folkestone, and it must be fifteen years ago that they last dug up Jock's pitch. (The local name for that part of East Cliff.) Alice is looking very young, too. 😁

[@MrTorleon]

@@sarkybugger5009 Indeed, but as I mentioned above, I am well aware of a significant passage of time since this episode was created, but in terms of ' history ' it was only a minute ago !!!!!! It would be of some help if more current archeological digs could be uploaded, as new and exciting forensic technology, ladar scanning and dna analysis has contributed to a significant increase in the understanding of material emerging from the various dig sites, although up to date information is always available through a variety of web sites :)

[@sophieallen8523]

I am from Folkestone!! Find it incredible that they found this in my hometown!!

[@lovelyskull3483]

This is so exceptional, thank you.

[@headishome8452]

Very interesting, thank you for posting.

[@gregedmand9939]

There are slightly less horrible events that could, explain the trove of infant remains, that don't require deliberate intent: if it were near a brothal, the deaths could be linked to stillbirth and late-term abortions due to disease. It's still seen in farming in significant numbers of 5 to 10% of sheep pregnancies for example. It doesn't even have to be a venereal disease, many of which can cause infant death. Many insect-born viruses can contribute to outcomes that look perfectly formed to the untrained eye.

[@beehungry6190]

Full term abortions are horrible and disgusting and do take deliberate j i intent hence full term so not a reasonable explanation. Dont make excuses for disgusting behavior.

[@Padraigp]

Could have just been one families dead babies too. It doesnt say what size or age they are yet anyway im half way through. And if its over 200 years you could easily have had 94 dead babies of different sizes.. including cousins and aunts and whatnot. I do wish theyd say whay size the damn skelingtons were.

[@Cherryblossomintherain]

They actually briefly went over it at 10:28 the expert they brought in says the babies died around time of birth. I don't know how they estimate that though; size, bone fusion/density?

[@SuzanneU]

Infant mortality ran at 40-50% in the past. This number of infant deaths over 50 years isn't weird.

[@jeanvignes]

Right up until the invention and general acceptance of indoor plumbing, water treatment for microbes, and vaccines, only 1/2 of all infants born survived until the age of 2. Their little immune systems were just too weak to handle the regular outbreaks of really devastating diseases, especially in crowded cities with next to no sanitation. Not to mention that early doctors would go from autopsy table to childbirth bed without changing garments, bathing, and thoroughly washing their hands. They had zero knowledge that a quick rinse of their hands with some cold water and a towel used over and over again could be a death sentence for both infant and mother via sepsis. They used to call it "childbed fever" when it was very often "obstetrician fever" as midwives were far more clean and careful than their "educated" male counterparts based on the midwives centuries of passed down, observational, knowledge that a clean birth was a safer birth. All that boiling water and grabbing a stack of clean sheets and towels was for good reasons.

[@ledacedar6253]

Midwifery in England, Scotland & Ireland & across Europe was extremely effective and helpful to mothers before labour, during and after in the post natal period so NO they didn’t often die! Make MD’s interference did cause a lot but midwifery has proven to prevent all mortality to the degree that only 3-8% of mum’s died or infants died. Midwifery wisdom was suppressed here in the west! Canada started midwifery schools and practioners in 1990’s. You really should research the degree of extreme safety, brilliant passed down wisdom’s to help mum’s pelvis open, to relax her and to help the body give birth without any doctor caused deaths due to rushing, pulling on the unborn & making women lay flat to ensure ineffective labour pains; then add their damn stirrups ffs!

[@greganderson5278]

We are from the U.S. We visited the Binchester Roman fort in Sept. 2023. We walked up the unmarked road to the site and were the only tourists there for awhile. I would like to see Binchester grow and offer tours by trained archaeologists. Durham University has a good archaeology museum specializing in the underwater finds by Gary Bankhead.

[@martynnotman3467]

Theres only really the money to develop one or two of the wallforts and Vindolanda and Chesters have more developed sites. Unlikely Binchester (which is actually quite remote) will get further developed.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Tourism can some times ruin as well.

[@MissKizzy1207]

❤

[@alanatolstad4824]

Exciting to see a young Danni!---Lindsey Davis got so many things right in her historical fiction books.

[@Nyathi1960]

Ever since I watched dr. Alice on the "evolution of man" and "why cooking made us human" I'm hooked. Her enthusiasm, energy and excitement made me her number one fan. She exudes archaeology and presents it in such a charming way. I would watch her docu's even if they were on the evolution of bicycle spokes.

[@Odonanmarg]

An artist’s representation of the armour would have been interesting to look at.

[@AAD2698]

No matter why there were women at the stie giving birth, the years given between 150 and 200 means that there were potential 50 years for those 97 babies to die. That is barely 2 a year! With death rates are birth very high, that seems like a LOW number! If it was a maternity/mother goddess center, they were doing good work!

[@elainedoyle6603]

B

[@seraphale]

Brothel.

[@scottdiamond74]

It it was a maternity center, wouldn't there be women buried there? 🤔

[@SecretSquirrelFun]

Yes, well said. This is what I was also considering.

[@johnmc128]

@@scottdiamond74 Why, they go there to give birth if the baby lives or dies they go home.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Considering trade has been a thing for longer than history, those coins might as well been traded. The same has happened here in Germany. the limes wasn't a locked down barrier, but a frontier that could be defended against raids. But traders and travellers could pass.

[@fleetskipper1810]

You’re right, coins travel. Sometimes a very long way.

[@rogerjackson9549]

I find it somewhat funny (in a peculiar way) that they are so almost horrified by the discovery of the babies. Their view of reality during the Roman era is obviously colored by their modern sensibilities. Life was significantly more difficult then than now, and whether disposing of inconvenient children or ritual sacrifice was the reason, it was "normal" then. And if it was a birthing center, the deaths vs. number of the total births of the centuries, 97 really isn't that many.

[@lovepet4565]

I find it fascinating that those tiny little bones from those poor forgotten newborns are still in the ground!? Imagine if theyd developed that area? Concrete Razing top soil One reason i love the UK

[@estelledossantos5661]

Very well noted...!🙂

[@louisebrookes2630]

I find it amazing people think ritual sacrifice ended in the past

[@rogerjackson9549]

@@louisebrookes2630 Good point. We moderns think we're above that sort of thing, but it goes on in other parts of the world unabated.

[@laurenturner3578]

​@@louisebrookes2630 we think we are so above our ancestors but the truth is we are the same with different levels of technology...

[@brianperry]

I’ve always thought that being sent to Gran Britannia was a very unpopular posting for most Roman soldiers, bearing in mind the climate…compered to what many would have been used to in the Mediterranean areas.

[@blktauna]

Nice seeing Miles and Dani and Peter.

[@christinehines9118]

It's lovely to see these incredible, knowledgeable people still involved in the British archaeology community. A treat!

[@resourcedragon]

I am not surprised that the Romans (or perhaps "Romans") stayed on after the fall of the empire. Roman was more a political, economic and cultural system than an ethnicity. Roman soldiers were drawn from all over the empire, and generally posted to places where they didn't have family or tribal connections. Once they'd served for long enough to get a pension (in the form of a land grant) they often stayed where they were posted, rather than returning to where they came from. I suspect that in many cases they would have acquired a local wife and they would have a circle of local friends (perhaps sons of other Roman soldiers, retired soldiers, Romans who plied a variety of non-military trades and professions, and so on). Over time even the locals became Romanised. So, by the time the Roman empire gasped its last, the "Romans" in Britain probably would have seen staying on as a logical move. There were also the questions of how the Roman soldiers would get the fares to go back to where they came from and also the issues of political and economic instability in those places. All of that would make quietly earning a decent living in a formerly-Roman fort/town a much more attractive proposition.

[@tangojuli209]

From a silversmith perspective--those cross bow brooches are a LOT more work than the bangle-shaped ones. If the economy followed roman power decline, there would be much less disposable income for labor-intensive peices, and pin makers would have produced more affordable pieces, the bangle shaped or C-shaped designs.

[@lindah5910]

Great show! As a Historian I find it interesting that Archaeology doesn't appear to have adopted the more modern time notations of BCE and CE (Before Common Era and Common Era).

[@estherrenwick7006]

It varies, some archaeologists use it, some journals have it as standard, some don't. Professor Roberts generally uses it these days but this programme is at least 10 years old now.

[@finurra3905]

Watching before sleepy time this is fascinating and so sad

[@MeagainIA2011]

Interesting what that guy at 52:19. Arrested developments in babies. They didn't say much other than suggest they were poorest of the poor possibility. However, there is another possibility that could have been an autoimmune disease. My grandmother, (whose parents came from Birmingham, England...of course not during this content era). Her dad and 4 of his brothers ALL died from nephritis. My grandmother birthed 12 babies that we know of, but she likely suffered from at least one autoimmune disorder. 4-5 children from infancy to 2-4y/o died from FAILURE TO THRIVE. Which they blamed the mother for not taking care of them. But this failure to thrive is just one of the symptoms of a genetic kidney disease. I am 63 and it has taken the medical field 59 years to diagnose Distal Renal Tubular Acidosis and 63 years and my nephrologist to order a renal gene study to find that I have FOUR kidney diseases. I think it was three of these genetic disease that cause 2 anemias, degenerative joint disease, rheumatoid arthritis. But the curious one that makes doctors scratch their head, is my vitamin and minerals more times than not are so low they think the cause is domestically caused, or I'm not eating enough to make my food stretch on my budget. Its the immune diseases. 63y/o and I am suffering from failure to thrive!! Well, yes and no, but caused by the 3 of 4 kidney diseases. So maybe these babies had failure to thrive, but not at the hands of anyone person and from any economical environment. However, poverty would likely contribute if their mothers had poor diets while under Roman rule.

[@dinosawrusgoRAWR]

I wish there was a genetic test that could prove this. The clinical diagnosis of “failure to thrive” is too vague and even doctors during the Victorian era documented this in the death certificates of those who passed in the workhouse. You really might be into something here! Personally I have a degree in forensic science and even then we didn’t discuss long historical cases such as those in the Roman times. We had bones from the Victorian era who’s “owners” (as it were) had tuberculosis, however nothing like acute renal failure. One wonders how many people over the centuries have suffered from this and it’s been reported by the coroner at the time as something they didn’t understand. I’m sorry it’s take so long to get your diagnosis and I hope there is something that can be done to help you!

[@jenniferholden9397]

Isn’t it sad that you are struggling financially when you should have had your state pension at 60? I’m one of those ladies that had 7 years pension stolen and the reason given? They wanted to make women and men pension age the same when we still don’t have pay parity with men. I think that the Tory party, well known for its even handedness, must have made an error by omitting to inform us about 7 year pension grab. Have you tried asking the Citizen Advice if your entitled to any benefits because of your severe health condition, I’ve found them very helpful. Good luck.

[@bananahpolkadot]

I struggle with autoimmune issues too. My doctor has prescribed B-12 injections because when I take the vitamins, B-12 doesn’t get absorbed for some reason. Maybe you’re suffering from some kind of malabsorption rather than malnutrition. Something to maybe ask your doctor about?

[@MeagainIA2011]

@@bananahpolkadot B12 and Vitamin D needs folic acid to help the body to absorb it. Note: D3 is vitamin D with Folic acid.

[@Padraigp]

Absolutely. Like queen anne who had some genetic thing and had all her 17 babies die. All of them! I think 3 lived beyond a few days. A family of isolated rómáns could have been inbreeding and having a lot of babies dying. Could just be one families tragedy. I wish they had done dna to see if they were related or say what age they were. Did i miss that? I've been waiting for them to say but they just say infant.

[@SherryRector]

Very interesting and insightful

[@susanturner2409]

We attended the Folkestone site in Roman reenactment kit on an open day. An American told one of our reenactors that Roman soldiers never came to Britain.

[@KJ-wh8fu]

(Eyeroll) As an American, I am embarrassed. Apologies.

[@bill90405]

Generations of under spending on public education.

[@tereseshaw7650]

Well, the Britons never came to Rome! So there!

[@victoriahoward8244]

As an American, I’m so sorry. We don’t claim that idiot. How embarrassing. *Cringe*

[@SewingBoxDesigns]

I'm an American, and the school system here went full in stupid in the late 70s. The snow ball of ignorance has become an ice age.

[@richmiller7834]

brilliant presentation

[@paulapridy6804]

Good one. Thanjs.

[@tomhirons7475]

i found a gold roman signet ring on the beach there in 2015

[@MrRoz121]

Still have it?

[@miltonlevant3203]

If it could talk it would say leave me alone u plebeian

[@finalflowerchild]

Nice!

[@jamiebizness1]

I wish with all the study of history we would all learn from our past . I'm trying my best . But hard to see history constantly repeating.

[@paulwitt6936]

We do learn from history,but the problem is that the constant is we are still human. Therefore falable.

[@Lauriej117]

@@paulwitt6936 And many not only fallible, but stupid and uneducated. 🙂🇨🇦

[@MrHowardking]

When I think of Devon or Cornwall, TIN comes to mind. Surely, the Romans must have known that and had a significant presence in the area as a consequence.

[@amytock6473]

Hello 👋🏼 In her book Buried, in one of the last chapters, she mentions the use of tin in the area. If you haven't already, you should give it a read or listen, it's very very good! 😌

[@kasie680]

They were there for the minerals and the farming to feed their army!

[@elaineashbrook550]

This is very informative thank you 😊

[@SecretSquirrelFun]

48:30 THAT!! ❤ Just so beautiful.

[@BryceMcQueen-qk2zu]

I procured a Roman Slave Tag a week ago. Game pieces, deco belt attachments., Segmeta ( Roman armor) etc..seller in York.

[@BeverleyPrice-ty7xr]

Love all these sorts of shows bringing back such important periods of the life of Britain. THERE should be a lot more ,They are far more interesting than most of the rubbish sob stories that are on,

[@erikasantoshafitness348]

This show. this host. these stories…is why I am getting a VPN.

[@SecretSquirrelFun]

A birthing and family planning centre? Given mortality rates of the age and that they practiced infanticide, I think they the number of infant burials starts to seem less shocking. That they were found all in one place is what makes it seem sinister. But a cemetery attached to a female health centre could explain that.

[@laurenturner3578]

I'm pretty sure the idea of a birthing center is anachronistic to Roman times. The idea of having babies anywhere but at home has been a very modern one in this scale of history.

[@laetitiavisagie-gg6kk]

I cannot help to think of the life of a prostitute in the Roman era - falling pregnant not knowing who the father is and knowing there is a possibility of the baby dying when being born or killed - it is heartbreaking

[@carlamarlene2927]

They had methods of dislodging pregnancy and even preventing them

[@michellelaudet5363]

These brothel were more likely priestesses from pagan worship.

[@ladyravenmoon666]

Not a reason to kill a baby

[@corablah9809]

​@@ladyravenmoon666it absolutely is. They need the woman back to work, making money, using her for business trades, not caring and raising for a baby while shes bent over for a random man with syphilis. Youre trying to be mrs prolife, but that isnt remotely even a thought when it comes to these things going on hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

[@auroraborealis6009]

Didn't people dispose of babies with some sort of obvious defect?

[@CFVV24]

It’s crazy to think the number of people who don’t exist because of the newborns who died.

[@angh18]

Oh maan, that's like a 'going-down-the-rabbit-hole' reply.

[@CeruleanTalon1]

I kept thinking, during this program, about the poor farmer who now has no rights to his own land.

[@briancharles1141]

Alice love your programes facinaiting to me love it thankyou

[@fleetskipper1810]

I would’ve had liked to have heard mention of what Roman Chronicles said about the withdrawal from Britain and the number of Roman soldiers left behind. The Roman military machine kept fantastic records of everything that it did. So I think that there could be a way to verify, at least somewhat, how many soldiers stayed put when the army left Britain.

[@GrammerAngel]

I find the trouble with archeologists is they always go for the most dramatic explanation, (it makes it more interesting, more exciting, and more newsworthy). A brothel? Child infanticide? Pornography? Pretty extreme guesses when it can all be explained by more typical, mundane occurrences.

[@dtulip1]

Point is we will never really know

[@JanetteOBrien-p3l]

Would you rather it be flat and boring!

[@Lauriej117]

Rude and erroneous comment on your part.🇨🇦

[@estherrenwick7006]

We don't, but no-one wants to make TV shows or write newspaper articles on the more prosaic explanations we give every day, so they don't get seen by the public...

[@shaygordon-brown646]

As a plus this episode also includes an early sighting of Danni Wootton circa 2011.

[@christopherlawley1842]

She kinda looks Swedish

[@Hellsprite67]

Dani Wootten popped up on Time Team occasionally way before 2011.

[@stephanieyee9784]

​@@christopherlawley1842, She isn't. 🙂

[@olymartin]

Definitely not Swedish. I've known her from way back when she was the finds officer for Devon. I think she originates from the Bolton area. @@christopherlawley1842

[@MountainRaven1960]

6:01 looks like the young archeologist took a knock to the bonce? Those digging trowels can be dangerous. 21:25 could the site be a birthing centre or a brothel? Sounds like an airport, arrivals and departures.

[@MoonBuggy1970]

Great Chanelle 😊

[@namnug69]

Enjoying British archeology from Texas

[@skidfrog]

97 deaths are nothing if over the course of 75 years 10,000 babies were born there. If indeed it was a brothel there might be more signs of traffic and trade for that purpose ; I'm voting for the idea of a birthing "clinic "

[@ertjiesb4158]

Could also be a place for young girls or unmarried women to have their babies in secret. Over 50 years, it's only 2 babies a year and that doesn't sound like very much at all.

[@Crispvs1]

The overlapping copper-alloy discs with the Mithras head is NOT armour. Roman armour scales are never attached that way, and for good reason. What it is far more likely to be is the ritual costume of one of the ranks within the Mithras cult, each of which had its own distinctive costume. The probable shimmering effect mentioned in the programme would work well with the torches needed within the normally subterranean temple to Mithras.

[@AbigayleFall-sp3wt]

And with this, archeologists have become unsung heroes for revealing the beautiful (and highly sophisticated) Pagan world we used to be! As for the other archeologist, her theory whether intentionally or not has further demonized not just sex workers, but the knowledge that ancient wise people and doctors held. It’s sad to see that even the most studious of scientists are still looking to their biases for making guesses about our past, and furthermore perpetuating the idea that we the people of the 21st century are more morally superior than our ancestors is simply false. In fact, the evidence we continue to uncover shows that they were much more advanced than we previously thought… if not more than we are nowadays. Personally speaking, I believe we as a society have become so morally lost, uninspired, uninformed, and just unable to push the envelope like our predecessors did before us. For example, post Industrial Revolution we were molded into thinking what the upper class wanted us to believe- they believed that us in modern times were more superior than our “primitive” counterparts in the past (and because they wanted to feel special, they also applied this label to anyone who wasn’t White, Christian, wealthy, pro capitalist, or applying to gender/sexuality norms 😬), which is were we get terms for different time periods in history such as the “Dark Ages”. And before we continue with this statement: YES! Everything that goes wrong in this world is connected to each other; economics, politics, religion, eugenics and racism, classism, ableism, you name it! Almost every “ism” and “phobia” effects the world around us. And yes it does relate to this! It is the lie that we were born superior to the bones of our ancestors that laid the groundwork for our way of life that taught people like that archaeologist to vilify those same bones. It is those falsehoods that the wealthier intellectuals of their time perpetuated that led us to believe things such as “They’re obviously dead, so they must’ve been not as smart as us, otherwise their civilizations would still be around”, or “they were so primitive, that they couldn’t have possibly been able to perform any complex medical procedures, hence why the death rate was so high”. Archaeologists have found bones of Neanderthals and early humans who have amputated limbs, or completely healed bones that were previously broken, and even cavities in one individual’s teeth that scientists surmised were caused by the individual’s family giving them too many sweet treats, because they felt sad about her being in pain from a chronic illness. In conclusion, just because we can’t personally imagine our past bloodlines being as advanced in their lives and technology as we are, doesn’t mean that they were unintelligent. We are forever grateful grateful that these people are brushing away the dust, and reconsidering our own sense of self, and what it means to be human. ❤️

[@ColdHawk]

Waiiiit a minute. Was that bit about the ford across the Thames used as an excuse to get film of the good Doctor walking about in a wetsuit? Her swimming in the water added nothing of substance.

[@cherm-k9b]

Thank You Prof. Alice Roberts... The graveyard, the bodies, I was wondering. I thought the Romans cremated? England certainly did not have a shortage of wood? Why ?...TM

[@lordeden2732]

Not always !

[@tscully1504]

Interesting episode.

[@ruthcherry3177]

Fabulous, thank you!

[@dirkababy]

Babies and children were a disposable product back then. And an inconvenient baby, well, it may have been a blessing for them to have life cut short. It was a cruel time, love and caring for children then was in short supply

[@meatavoreNana]

Much the same as today then 😢

[@AmbassadorDavis]

Was that Phil from Time Team I spotted? :)

[@darvr5697]

Some Romans staying after the empire withdrew only makes sense. Some soldiers probably fell in love with native women and had children. Some probably fell in love with the land and the locals. Some may have been running from their past. There's any number of reasons why some would want to stay.

[@shawroberts5149]

The babies and infants may have succumbed to childhood contagious diseases enmasse such as Measles or Scarlet Fever. Today we underestimate the ferocity of these outbreaks. Many bacteria and virus' causing childhood illnesses can pass through the placenta resulting in miscarriages and stillbirths. Just as with modern day Covid 19 we should consider this site as a possible sanitorium, quarantine or medical refuge...

[@madgevanness4011]

I must admit I like the idea of a maternity hospital. Childbirth before modern medicine was perilous to both child and mother.

[@AndyJarman]

Or 'compromised' temple priestesses.

[@JerehmiaBoaz]

I don't, I might be interpreting history through the lens of contemporary ethics but I find it hard to believe that a mother just abandons her stillborn at the maternity ward. Then there is the point that Roman culture saw the dead as unclean so cemeteries had to be located outside a town's pomerium (ritual boundary) which makes it hard to believe that dead babies were buried next to an aesculapium (healing temple) or some kind of obstetrician's practice.

[@58Kym]

It still is.

[@brenda1378]

3 infant burials neonates on a Romano British site (farmstead). 2 each in a round grave cut both almost crouched, Another in the bottom of a ditch. Explain that? @@JerehmiaBoaz

[@JerehmiaBoaz]

@@brenda1378 The pomerium marks the part of a town or a city that's legally and ritually part of (the city-state of) Rome itself. Anything outside the pomerium is territory conquered and occupied by Rome, for which other rules and laws apply. A farmstead wouldn't normally be inside the pomerium.

[@brendacooper5729]

From what I read and it could be all wrong, Roman infants had to be claimed by their father, if not accepted they were exposed to the elements and left to die, Rome was supposed to have a special hill to dump kids on to be scavenged by predators. If this is true and these Romans followed that practice in Britain there would be no bones buried to be found later. I like the idea of a birthing facility, if the infants were full term still births I can see them just being shoved into the ground if they were not considered as fully human before surviving to a certain age. When you have many children and the mortality is high, I can understand not investing a lot in a child until it has proven it is robust enough to survive.

[@HannahJack123]

It's sad no matter how ya look at it. 3 babies short of a hundred is a lot of loss of young life in a rural area

[@andrewwelsh6638]

So the villa was the property of classic britannica, an organisation rather than an individual? I do have doubts about the “high status individuals” who seem to often crop up in the dialogue. This may well have been an organised lookout, an important role for the Roman organisation in Britain.

[@harrybruijs2614]

Classis Brittanica. The prefect were individuals of the Senatorial class and legati augusti pro preatore. Much more high class is not possible in Roman society and just like an general today they had to live somewhere as needed their staff. So this was the HQ.

[@Stoogewriter]

I find this fascinating. I have significant roots in the UK on both sides of my family. I also have roots in the European continent.

[@benjalucian1515]

Infant survival rate in those days was woefully low.

[@donnareynolds7250]

Yeah! Time team! I'm so happy

[@Dal606BBN]

Why isn't Dr. Alice Roberts the host for The Time Team!? Make it happen Time Team. Please. Cheers

[@TerrapinStation]

Homie at 5:50 got in a fist fight like 10 minutes before filming. Respect.

[@lauralake7430]

A Roman Magdalena Laundry! Poor babies, poor mothers.

[@ertjiesb4158]

I thought the same thing.

[@TravisBrady-wn8fr]

If history were taught in this manner at schools our world would be much better off

[@elizabethfairlie8296]

Interesting and accessible

[@Ericsaidful]

I don’t know why, but the host of this show is exactly what I envision when I think of a Princess. Her mannerisms, her speech, her smile, her hair. Everything just screams what I’d expect royalty to be like. Though I know it isn’t.

[@ingridseim1379]

I come from a country that never had royalty, so that never occurred to me. Does she project that to you when she's doing the "extreme archaeology" digs where she's wading in mud, on a zip line over a river, rappelling down a cliff side or diving underwater? I don't know if I'm picking up on what you're picking up on, but she strikes me as someone I'd watch over if she were my neighbor. I'd bake treats and bring some over. I'd keep an eye on her deliveries and keep porch pirates away.

[@Neilhuny]

She (Alice Roberts) is a professor at a top university, has a solid background in anatomy and teaching, has been a presenter for history programmes for several decades and is an all round good egg. Oh, and a passionate Humanist

[@Neilhuny]

​@@wildrose2748Unnecessary

[@kathleenmartin7498]

When I first heard her voice, I thought it was Nikki, the presenter on Escape to the Country shows. Both ladies have similar accents. Do you know where this type of accent originates from?

[@Neilhuny]

@@kathleenmartin7498 I'd say it is what is now called 'Received Pronunciation' or standard English with little or no regional accent. It isn't posh, it isn't 'working class' etc, it is just the way more and more people are speaking - blame the internet, schools and television

[@lmc2375]

The DNA of the 97 babies should be put into the major databases, like 23andme to see what matches they get. Would be interesting. They would surely to relate to some.

[@GoBlueGirl78]

It wouldn’t be matched to anyone.

[@kathdudek1673]

Anybody read up on the dig at Ashkelon? At the Roman level, a 'bawdy house' was discovered and at a nearby drain was found newborn skulls and a few bones. DNA testing was performed and the young ones were overwhelmingly male in number. The researchers knew reports of Roman infanicide and considered this likely proof of the practice. Caught this years ago in the Biblical Archaeology Review.

[@CoryMT]

I wonder if the cuts on the infant bones may be from shovels when new infants were buried after old ones. Not that that rules out infanticide. While watching the last episode the 97 infants were mentioned, I was wondering if a midwife was operating at that location and burying still births, but then dismissed that idea since I thought a midwife would travel to the pregnant lady, not the opposite (obviously this is all just speculation).

[@isaibanez]

It's very funny to see her dive into the river just to emerge with dry hair XD Out of that, it's such an interesting documentary!

[@brandyjean7015]

I saw her swimming, head held above the water. Her companion had the diving equipment on. She wore a wetsuit simply for warmth when swimming.

[@shawroberts5149]

Perhaps babies were sold to the childless, much as happens today in some areas.

[@blzbob7936]

Many 'Roman' soldiers were conscripts from all over Europe. When the Empire receded, some probably thought they had nothing to go back to, so decided to stay and make a life for themselves here. Hence the adopting of celtic clasps etc and dropping the roman style. The dead babies thing I have seen before, and it was said it was a brothel. Their bones were discovered in an excavated Roman sewage system.

[@jenny6253]

97 babies dying over 50 yrs for that time is not that many!

[@gentlebreeze6414]

It's extremely unusual for its context, and unique for Roman sites in Britain. It's not unusual in the context of Roman brothels.

[@ellieplantagenet9121]

Usually, boys were killed. The girls were kept as profitable future whores.​@@gentlebreeze6414

[@gileslangley941]

I love Alice’s Bristol accent, for some it’s perhaps a put off, but not for me..

[@terimorris6394]

Put off? Her posh accent is very clear and soft. I’m put off by Essex accent, scouse and Yorkshire but not her accent

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Why would it put anyone off? She speaks clearly and everyone can understand her!

[@Nylak-Otter]

I'm personally put off by all British accents (personal bias), but I do agree that hers is more agreeable than most. It's pretty mild compared to others.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

​@@Nylak-OtterHers is not much if any of an accent.

[@Nylak-Otter]

@@janetmalcolm6191 Exactly. That's why I prefer it. 😂

[@vanessasofly]

Interesting to contemplate what really happened, as there is also the human sacrifice aspect and the fact that Romans frequently killed infants that had any disabilities, both physical or mental. Although 97 infant skeletons is horrific by today's standards, (Sad to think of these poor little babies not surviving!) if it was over a 50 year time span, almost 2,000 years ago, this isn't that many deaths considering how frequently people died, how high infant mortality rates were and how short life expectancy was. And of course, this was all before people knew the necessity of washing their hands...

[@alexlee9276]

is there any other Roman settlements in Britain or elsewhwere displayed simliar discoveries?

[@squirrleytemple3354]

thank you

[@scrubsrc4084]

Tje soldiers left as they were needednto fight on the continent. The locals took over the areas. Tired of hearing the long proven flase line that the romans turned out the lights when they left

[@philiptanswell352]

Is the location of the newly discovered Roman town in West Devon known?

[@ScionStorm1]

"They _LOST_ 97 bodies?!" My reaction to the title.

[@ziploc2000]

I agree it was unclear whether the thing happened before they were buried, or after they were found. I'd suggest "What had happened" would make it clearer that the event was pre-burial.

[@paulapridy6804]

From the first time I saw this, I got the idea these graves might represent pregnancy terminations. After live birth 😢😢😢

[@norecipenecessary6864]

Ummmmm….. you can’t “terminate a pregnancy” after a live birth. Think about it.

[@carolynwalls6787]

I assume the dna might tell you blood type. My grandmother had 10 pregnancies and only 5 adult surviving children. 4 babies died within 24 hours of birth due to RH factor. Also one died as an infant from "bloody flux", which I don't know the current name of. So many, many reasons why a baby in the past might live only 1 day. How could you know now if it is deliberate or just the terrible healthcare of the past?

[@terimorris6394]

Poor grandma

[@Padraigp]

Yes like queen anne ..she had 17 babies only 3 survived beyond a few days and they all died of something. God love her. I dont know what she had but something ..they did say she had inbreeding too.

[@glolouise9488]

Bloody flux is another word for dysentery. Your poor grandmother!

[@KoriC4077]

Wasn't it lupus? I feel like it was lupus ​@@Padraigp

[@Padraigp]

@@KoriC4077 it's always lupus

[@nadiamurchie1949]

my brain just decided to ask, did folk then have archaologists? and if they did , where did the records go? who's going to be finding us in future if not cremated?. everyone i know including myself are opting for cremation to not be any financial burden.

[@kasie680]

There will always be burial’s though, a lot of cultures cremate their dead and have always 😊

[@Padraigp]

Id say there were people who did archeology but not like today. Even in the early 1900s archeology was a hobby and anyone could do it.

[@brushbros]

The reason that Rome had to constantly expand was due to erosion of farmland through the centuries. By the time of Christ, Rome was importing all of its food from North Africa and Egypt.

[@jimoconnor2594]

There's nearly 900 in Tuam

[@okdk7]

Amazing. Infant mortality rates have been high at various times though , no ? Can they link the DNA to a small group of "fathers" ? Very very interesting . Beautiful spot for anyone working.

[@madgevanness4011]

Roman road…. I keep hearing that the Romans buried legionaries by the road.

[@domenicozagari2443]

Crazy people will say that Romans went back to Rome, its like saying the Pellegrins from America returned to Britain.

[@jamestrotman1593]

Binchester may be like Birdoswald where the Roman garrison also remained and lived during the fifth century.

[@WezelLispProductions]

The question I keep seeing is, if there are 97 babies, where are the mothers, since death in childbirth was equally likely for mother AND child. My thoughts are thar it could be the babies were burried in one area and the mothers buried in another and they just haven't found the mother's yet? Also didn't the Roman's often cremate their dead? So it could be the mother's were cremated and the babies were buried because they didn't live long enough to "deserve the honor" of cremation? Could also be that the babies that died were left there, but the mother's that died were sent back to be burried by their families. Place could have been a mother house like back in the day. Where women pregnant out of wedlock would tell everyone they're just gonna go on vacation for awhile, but actually they stayed at a mother house when they started showing, would have their baby, and put it up for adoption. So if a mother died in child birth, she'd probably be sent back to her family, but the baby would be burried in secret there. Over all its strange that just babies have been found. Like I said, maybe they just haven't found the mother graveyard yet. But I think it was probably a mother house. If it were a brothel you'd still find women's remains, but if it was a mother house then if the mother died, she'd probably just be sent home, but if the baby was to be born in secret and it died in utero, then itd make sense that the baby would be buried there, cuz the mother wasn't supposed to have it to begin with. If any of that makes sense?